captioning made possible by johnson & johnson, where quality products for the american family have been a tradition for generations >> osgood: good morning. i'm charles osgood and this is sunday morning. the stand-off goes on in wisconsin today between public employees' union and the republican governor and legislature. at issue a proposed rollback in union bargaining rights for state employees combined with higher worker contributions for health care and pensions.

we'll hear from cynthia bowers in madison in just a few minutes. on to a small american city where the municipal employees have it much worse. they've been told from the beginning that they could retire with pensions but now they're being told in the bluntest of terms, don't count on it. martha teichner will be reporting our cover story. >> there are serious arthritis issues, unable to work. she was a police dispatcher, and she ended up having to file bankruptcy. >> reporter: 17 months ago prichard alabama stopped sending out pension checks. >> my wife and i both are suffering. how are we going to live. >> reporter: later this sunday morning, prichard's pension woes. are they coming to a city near you? >> osgood: not every woman can wear the impossibly proportioned clothes you often see models wearing on the runway. that's where a designer who is fit for fashion comes in.

our tracy smith has visited him. >> reporter: the designer behind these pricey clothes, he willy to harry arrived in this country flat broke. >> i didn't have a place to sleep. i was hungry. >> reporter: he said the hard knocks he took on his way to the top actually helped him get there. >> they see even the kick in the butt is good when you're facing the right direction. >> reporter: it's a fairy tale, after a fashion. about a man named elie, later on sunday morning. >> osgood: when they call for the envelope, please, for best actor at the academy awards next sunday, a man who plays a real-life internet tycoon will be among the finalists. harry smith will this morning, as they say, friend him. >> mr. zuckerberg, do i have your full attention some. >> no. >> reporter: his performance has facebook founder mark zuckerberg in the social network as earned actor jesse eisenberg an oscar nomination.

not to mention a lot more attention from the press. >> there's something very uncomfortable about that. >> reporter: fame. >> i guess that's what it is normally referred to. >> reporter: later on sunday morning, a little face time with jesse eisenberg. >> osgood: gypsy rose lee and her sister had a famously famous pushy stage mama celebrated in the musical gypsy who taught them, you have to have a gimmick. this morning rita braver will have her story. ♪ let me entertain you >> reporter: her story was turned in to a musical. no wonder. in real life gypsy rose lee was a sensation. >> everything my mother ever did had a gimmick. >> reporter: what was the gimmick to her act? >> the main sgim i can to her act what that she removed her clothes from the inside out. >> reporter: later on sunday morning, why we're still buzzing about gypsy 100 years

after her birth. >> osgood: we'll also consider the latest triumph of machine over man with the fast draw. remember john glenn's epic space mission. take time to stop and smell the roses and more. but first here are the headlines for this sunday morning, the 20th of february, 2011. as we mentioned, the budget stand-off continues in madison wisconsin. yesterday brought the largest protest yet by state employees against a republican-backed bill to charge them more for pension and health care benefits and to scrap the union's collective bargaining rights for everything except pay. there were also demonstrations yesterday in support of governor scott walker's plan. we'll have more on this situation in wisconsin in just a few minutes. demonstrations continue across the middle east and north africa with protests now underway in at least five countries. alan pizzey reports. >> reporter: the celebration in bahrain went on through the tonight.

tens of thousands flocked to pearl square where the revolt began and was fought. government has offered to talk to all opposition parties but no one at the table yet. (gun fire) fort in libya a brutal crackdown on protestors has so far left more than 100 people dead and many more wounded according to human ryes watch. no independent reporting is allowed, but witnesses using social networking sites said the security forces fired heavy weapons. the protests were an unprecedented twist to the rule of libyan strongman moammar qaddafi. in yemen protestors and police hurled stones, boltss and stones at each other until the security forces opened up with gun fire. violent protests which began nine days ago are aimed at ousting the country's president, a key u.s. ally. the wave of popular defense has also hit algeria which also has islamic fundamentals and al qaeda problems. pro and anti-government groups

squared off and exchanged insults. leaders under stress might well envy their bahrainy counterparts. women teachers were demanding better pay and more jobs. for sunday morning, this is alan pizzey in bahrain. >> osgood: in washington the republican-controlled house of representatives yesterday passed legislation approving budget cuts that would eliminate money for hundreds of federal programs including president obama's high speed rail plan. federal support for family planning and public broadcasting. the unlikely event the democratic-controlled senate should do the same, president obama has pledged to veto it. pirates who hijacked the yacht of an american couple say they will take it to somalia today. that could make it more difficult to rescue jeanne and scott adam who have been sailing the world distributing bibles it's believed two other americans are also aboard that yacht. check your mailbox. in a statement britain prince william's office said he and

bride to be kate middleton have sent out invitations to their april 29 wedding. if you don't take the cut take comfort in the fact that there's only room for about 1900 get... guests. our national tree in washington is no more. strong winds felled the 47-year-old spruce early yesterday. the parks department says a successor tree will be in place within a few weeks. now for today's weather. winds have calmed in the east. but a large winter storm is now looming over the nation's mid section. in the days ahead that storm will bring snow and freezing rain to the midwest and then the northeast. the rest of the country can expect clear skies, warm days, and plenty of sunshine. >> you don't have to study. let's just talk. >> osgood: ahead, the social network's jesse eisenberg talks with harry smith. >> miss gypsy rose lee. >> osgood: and the legacy of,,,,

>> osgood: for the past several days we've been seeing pictures of thousands of demonstrators marching through the streets of a capital city not in the middle east but in our own middle west. cynthia bowers in madison, wisconsin, has filed this sunday journal. >> this is what democracy looks like. it's about the.... >> reporter: for six days now, all eyes have been on madison, wisconsin, where tens of thousands of impassioned protestors have been marching

on the state capital. and the battle over one state's budget bill has become a fiery national referendum on public employee unions. it all began when newly elected republican governor scott walker declared he would cut costs by cutting pensions and health care benefits and curtailing collective bargaining rights for most of the state's 300,000 public employees. >> the bottom line is people elected me to get the job done. for people who act shocked i test that's because too many people say only politics make promises they don't plan on delivering. >> reporter: as the majority republican legislature prepared to vote on the controversial proposal, demonstrators began gathering slowly at first and then by the thousands. by thursday, word came that wisconsin's 14 democratic senators had fled the state in a last-ditch effort to

postpone a vote they were bound to lose. school teacher david fry told us what he feels is at stake. >> a lot of blood, sweat and tears went into getting to where we're at now. and we don't want to let that go. >> reporter: wisconsin's governor says he has no choice. the state is facing $136 million budget deficit and something has to give. protestors say the governor is using the budget battle to break the back of unions in the state that was the first to give public workers collective bargaining rights 50 years ago. long-time green bay second grade teacher mary beth lent worries for her future. >> i am a seasoned teacher. and i feel like without our union i am out of a job. >> reporter: it is a fear being felt by public employee unions across the country.

45 states and the district of columbia project budget shortfalls this year. at least nine republican governors have proposed plans of their own to balance those budgets by curtailing the power of the unions. one of the most vocal is ohio governor john kasick. >> if they want to strike they should be fired. >> reporter: a recent poll shows national support for public employee unions is declining. and private sector unions fear they could be next on the firing line. >> this is a tax payer issue, right. >> no, it's a workers' rights issue. >> reporter: and wisconsin's fire and police unions have joined the fray even though they would not be affected by the bill. yesterday conservative and tea party activists showed up fearing their "cut it all cost" message, the message that helped elect governor scott walker, was getting lost in the raucous rhetoric. steve boss came from the small town.

>> i know the majority is ready for these cuts. they're ready for things to change. sacrifice. >> reporter: another person doesn't believe the unions are necessary. >> i don't have anyone behind me like a union. i don't need it. it's my performance that speaks. >> this is what democracy looks like. >> reporter: as the protest moves into its second week, this is what democracy looks like in madison, wisconsin. one noisy day blends in to the next, and the crowds continue to grow. both sides acknowledge that the stakes are high, and that as wisconsin goes perhaps so goes the nation. >> did not run out of money overnight. >> osgood: next, no way out in the town of prichard, alabama. you need. ts and they're all looking for the same thing.

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ecomagination. healthymagination. capital. imagination at work. makes anything... everything... possible. ♪ ♪ even if they do end up making bigger contributions these wisconsin public employees we were just hearing about can still look forward to receiving their pensions at least for now. not so the employees in one southern town who are being told don't count on it. our cover story is reported by martha teichner. >> how are you doing today. >> reporter: at 66, alfred arnold considers himself lucky in a way. in september, 2009 when the city of prichard alabama suddenly stopped paying pension checks to its retirees,

at least he was able to work as a security guard at a mall in mobile. >> in the middle aisle here. >> reporter: this past christmas instead of exchanging gifts, employees gave all the money they would have spent on each other to alfred and his wife jackie. >> because they knew about the situation. >> they knew about the situation with the pension. we didn't have a pension. we weren't getting paid. >> reporter: how did you feel? >> i almost cried. >> reporter: alfred arnold was prichard's first black firefighter. he retired after 35 years as a captain. >> if i didn't retire it, i might not make it in the next fire. too strenuous. i had heart problems. >> reporter: jackie worked for the prichard police department for 40 years and was the city's first female officer. >> well i retired in june of 2009. i had become 62.

and i had become used to a pension check. nothing after that. i thought they would come up with something but nothing ever happened. >> without my job at the mall as a security officer, we probably couldn't even eat. >> reporter: after 17 months, it's come to this. the arnolds and prichard's other retirees want to know what's wrong with this picture. why handouts, why not the pensions they contributed to, the pensions state law says prichard has to pay? >> you can't draw blood from a turnip. all the colloquialisms you want to come up with. if the money is not there, we can't pay it. >> reporter: attorney scott williams represents the city of prichard. >> if we took all the city's money and paid it to the pensioners we won't have money to pay for the fire department or keep the street lights on. >> reporter: prichard is small. 144 retirees, 27,000 residents. but what happens in prichard is being watched by much larger cities. chicago, philadelphia, sand

yag owe to name a few. and by many states. they would all like nothing better than to dump their staggeringly underfunded pension plans. >> across the united states there is a difference of $3 trillion between the amount of money that we have promised public employees and the amount that has been set aside. >> reporter: joshua row teaches finance at northwestern university's kellogg school of management. he's tracked the pension crisis. >> politicians are often trying to make it look like we can have our cake and eat it too. that's created a situation where we've pushed the problem down the road. now we or our kids are going to have to pay for it. >> reporter: prichard has reached the end of that road. during the 1960s and '70s it was thriving. the fastest-growing city in alabama. its population 45,000 at its peak. and then businesses began to leave. and hard times set in for good.

in 1999 its finances in shambles the city declared bankruptcy. the pension fund was in trouble then. the city ignored a federal court order to replenish it. >> we saw a letter that was dated 2008. it was sent to members of the city council and the mayor. saying essentially it's going to run out of money in july, 2009. >> the math was pretty simple. i think the letter was basics basically something needs to be done and it needs to be done immediately. unfortunately there were no real efforts. >> reporter: and no penalty. city councilman troy ephraim is chairman of the pension board. >> i don't feel we've done everything in our power to prevent the inevitable from happening. >> reporter: would have, could have, should have. famous last words being heard all over the country these days. when its pension fund did run out of money right on schedule,

what did prichard do? it filed for bankruptcy again. this time hoping to be rid of its pension. was the attempt to file for bankruptcy a deliberate attempt to stall.... >> yes. >> reporter:... to not solve that problem. >> yes, absolutely. >> reporter: the petition was eventually thrown out of court. but it took nearly a year. during that time no money for retirees. since september 2009 when their pension checks stopped, prichard has been breaking state law. but alabama's attorney general has done nothing about it. >> she was a police dispatcher. she ended up having to file bankruptcy. >> reporter: robert hedge represents retirees in a class action suit against the city of prichard. >> this breaks my heart right here. this man has some serious arthritis issues, unable to work.

his 73-year-old wife had to go back to work. we've got wanda right here. she's in a wheelchair. she's in pretty bad shape. she's had some strokes. i just feel for her. >> reporter: the city now owes its pensioners more than $2.5 million in back payments. >> we're talking about on average $1,000 a month per person. >> reporter: that's it. >> that's it. that's the difference between buying your medications and buying food. >> reporter: and then there are current employees like police captain charles kennedy. >> the doctor told me i had to quit. >> reporter: he's 67, has had a serious heart attack and open heart surgery. but can't afford to retire. >> because if i was to leave now, i'd be like the rest of the retirees. i'd have nothing. >> reporter: kennedy is the most decorated officer on the prichard police force. >> i dedicated myself to this city. i did my heart. >> reporter: that's what gets him about how the city has

acted. >> i did an honorable for them. i think they owe me the same kind of respect. >> reporter: retired fire captain alfred arnold agrees. >> it's bad enough to lose one check out of a house, but to lose two. that's devastating. you're not giving us something that we didn't earn. you're not giving us no welfare. you're giving our money that we put in. how are we supposed to live? >> these people haven't been paid in 17 months. what can you say about that. >> reporter: on thursday nights at city council meetings, local reporters ambush prichard mayor ron davis. >> i'm concerned about them not getting paid. i would like to see them get some pams. >> reporter: expressions of sympathy don't amount to much among the retirees who show up every week. >> the pension fund did not run out of money overnight. >> reporter: that's nettie banks the fire dispatcher who had to declare bankruptcy. alfred arnold is here. jackie arnold is too. captain charles kennedy

attends when he's not working. >> 14 benefit recipients have died. all of the retirees' mental and physical health has been impacted by not receiving the monies that we are entitled to under the law. >> reporter: wanda spradlin struggles up from her wheelchair and lets loose. >> if the retirees are not getting anything, i don't think any of you should get a dime either. then we'll all be in the same boat. >> reporter: the mayor with his back to the crowd and the city council sit in stony silence. >> there is a right way and a wrong way to have handled this pension crisis. in my opinion, the majority of you have chosen the wrong way. >> reporter: in fact, both sides have now met with a mediator. the lawyers are trying to draft a compromise. retirees would be paid some of the pension money they're owed, not all. that is if they agree to

what's being offered. >> i will ask you to stand for a moment of silence as i read the names of the pensioners and retirees that have died since this happened. >> reporter: the city knows the retirees are running out of time. (reading the names) >> osgood: coming up, john glenn. in orbit. but the real winner? human kind. life is really about questions and answers. this technology can help us get some of those answers. we're going to revolutionize many, many fields with this new capability: healthcare, government, finance, anywhere decision- making depends on deeper understanding of the huge wealth of information that's out there.

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>> 102, 101, oxygen 78. >> osgood: now a page from our sunday morning almanac. february 20, 1962, 49 years ago today. the day a rocket lifted both an american astronaut and the american spirit, for that was the day john glenn was hurdled into orbit around the earth. >> the capsule is in good shape. >> osgood: a decorated marine corps pilot in world war ii and korea, john glenn went on to become a record-breaking test pilot. >> this is edtie hodges and here is his partner major john glenn jr.. >> reporter: a young contestants teammate in 1957 on the game show "name that tune." >> needless to say i'm very happy to be chosen. >> reporter: in 1959 glen was picked to become one of the seven original mercury astronauts.

at a time when america seemed to be losing the space race to the some of out union. when a russian was the first man to orbit the earth in 1961, the u.s. answered at first request a pair of short sub- orbital flights. finally the following february, john glenn boarded the capsule friendship 7 in an attempt to match the soviet feat. >> god speed, john glenn. >> osgood: the whole country was watching, holding its breath when glen lifted off. we didn't exhale until glen's capsule splashed down safely three orbits.... >> she looks very good, over. >> osgood:... and more than four-and-a-half hours later. john glenn was a national hero. congratulated by president kennedy. honored with a traditional ticker tape parade.

and welcomeded at a somewhat less traditional ceremony in the waters off hyannisport. >> mrs. kennedy and high-flying glen practically go into orbit aboard water skis. >> reporter: john glenn retired from the space program in 1964 and went on to become a four-term senator from his native ohio. >> i declare my candidacy for president of the united states. >> osgood: although his bid for the 1984 democratic presidential nomination fell short, john glenn made headlines again in 1998. when he returned to space at age 77 on a nine-day shuttle mission to study the effects of space travel on aging. hard for some of us to imagine, but john glenn will turn 90 later this year. for the original seven mercury astronauts only glen and scott carpenter survive.

>> when i raise my skirts with dexterity.... >> osgood: next, gypsy rose lee, remembered. and later, watson, we presume. ,,

♪ let me entertain you

>> it's sunday morning on cbs and here again is charles osgood. >> osgood: gypsy rose lee was one of america's legendary entertainers. on this 100th anniversary of her bir, you may wonder just what makes her legacy endure. rita braver can explain. >> announcer: our own gypsy rose lee. >> reporter: in 1943 she played herself in stage door canteen. >> have you the faintest idea about the private life of an exotic dancer? >> reporter: by then gypsy rose lee was famous. the beautiful and brainy stripper who became an international personality. above all, she was her own creation. even her name was invented. she grew up as rose louise

hobick. did she ever tell you why she chose gypsy? >> her favorite line about this is, darling, i've told that story so many different ways, i don't remember which one is true. >> reporter: gypsy's son eric lee preminger is still discovering things about his mother. your mother's legs were pretty famous. >> that's what she said were her strongest points. >> reporter: for example, she claimed to be born in 1914. but later research indicates it was 1911, 100 years ago. why do you think people are still so interested in your mom? >> because people can't believe that a stripper could attract the kind of attention and praise that she did. >> hello, everybody. my name is gypsy. what's yours? >> reporter: of course, many of us know her rags-to-riches story through the broadway musical gypsy and the film

starring natalie wood. >> let me entertain you. let me make you smile. >> reporter: and gypsy still entertaining. folks recently turned out at new york's usually staid public library to celebrate her centennial. >> your mother was expert at forging birth certificates. >> reporter: the crowd her from karen abbott who has just written a new book about gypsy. >> if dorothy parker and lady gaga had a secret love child, it would have been gypsy rose lee. >> reporter: but gypsy's beginnings were a lot more humble. born in seattle to rose hobick, an overambitious stage mother, the child was a

disappointment. >> she was a bit chubby. she was clumsy. she couldn't sing. she couldn't dance. ♪ yes, sir, that's my baby > then along came her sister baby june. >> this child could spin on point like a ballerina at the age of two. >> reporter: for years rose dragged her children around the vaudeville circuit. june was the star with gypsy relegated to bit player. reading was her escape. >> the kids used to call the duchess. >> reporter: because she thought she put on airs. >> and because she wouldn't play with them. she would have her nose in a book all the time. >> reporter: what did you know about gypsy's mother rose? >> rose was one of the most champing people that ever lived. but she was ruthless. and nothing got in her way. >> reporter: but she was stymied in 1929.

june, who later gained fame as actress june havock, eloped with one of the dancers. rose had to turn to gypsy. did anybody think gypsy was star material? >> no, not at all. they were desperate. >> reporter: gypsy became the headliner, but by then vaudeville was dying. and one fateful night in kansas city, the story goes that mama rose was furious to find out they had been mistakenly booked in a burlesque house. >> gypsy realized the end of the line and said, no, this is what we're doing. this is the only thing that's left. >> reporter: as the song says. ♪ you have to get a gimmick if you want to get applause ♪ >> reporter: gypsy got a gimmick. she was the de muir stripper, discussing while disrobing. >> when i raised the skirt

with slyness and dexterity, i mentally computing just how much i'll give to charity. >> reporter: within a year, gypsy was a sensation at the top burlesque theater in new york. >> 11,000 people a week came to see her in the beginning. gangsters, socialists, politicians, long shoremen. new york's intelligence i can't. everyone ♪ you have loved lots of girls ♪ > but she was not lucky in love. marry and divorced three times, she carried a torch for mike todd, who produced her successful show at the 1939 new york world fair. >> the stories say she really would have liked to marry him and that she was kind of broken hearted when he wouldn't marry her. >> i think that that's true. >> reporter: so gypsy engineered a fling with movie producer/director otto pre-minger. eric was the result.

his 1944 birth documented in life magazine. >> this is probably the only diaper she did. >> reporter: but until he was 22, his mother refused to reveal who his father was. >> i asked her why she wouldn't tell me. she said it's none of your business. who your father was. it's none of your business who i slept with is how she interpreted it. >> reporter: he later connected with preminger and took his name. eric wrote a book about life with gypsy. and what a life. >> when i was six months old she wrapped me in a blanket, threw me in the front seat of the car and started a two-year tour of nightclubs around the country. >> reporter: she was a big hit overseas as well. so no wonder edward r.murrow and person-to-person came

calling at gypsy's fabulous new york city home. >> good evening, miss lee. >> good evening. >> good evening, ike. >> good evening, how are you tonight. >> fine, thank you. >> i actually like writing. >> reporter: gypsy became a celebrated writer with pieces in the new yorker, a murder mystery, and then her best- selling memoir, the basis for that broadway musical. ♪ you'll be swell. you'll be great ♪ >> imagine this little girl from vaudeville sitting in a broadway theater watching ethel merman. ♪ honey, everything's coming up roses ♪ >> belt out incredible songs based on her life. >> reporter: she kept touring for years. went to vietnam to entertain troops. >> this is a jacket that has

on it the patches of all the units that my mother visited in vietnam. >> reporter: she said they considered her their sexy grandmother. she even hosted a talk show. with guests like librace. >> it's the only piece of jewelry i ever bought for myself. all the other things have been given to me. >> that's very nice. i've always bought all of mine. >> reporter: and then in 1970, gypsy was diagnosed with lung cancer. she was gone in four months. but in her centennial year, her life is an inspiration to a new generation, especially at the new york school of burlesque. founder joe weldon says gypsy rose lee proved a stripper can have class. >> she kept it fun. she allowed people to look at her as beautiful and still prove she had a brain and a voice.

>> that's all there is. there isn't anymore. >> reporter: she sure did. >> oh, boys, i couldn't. i'd catch cold. >> osgood: next, the real lois lane. how about eating soup to get there? campbell's soups fill you with good nutrition, farm-grown ingredients, and can help you keep a healthy weight. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. his family knows what to expect. hun, mike's coming -- let's get crackin'. [ male announcer ] but what mike rowe doesn't know is that his parents have armed themselves with unquilted viva® towels. place looks great. [ male announcer ] mike doesn't know that every concentrated viva roll is made of strong, fiber packed sheets, making it one tough towel. but his mom sure does. wow, for me? you shouldn't have. i insist. [ male announcer ] hey, if viva can handle mike rowe's mess,

just think what it can do in your home. grab a roll for yourself and grasp the unquilted difference. grab a roll for yourself

if you skip this latte and opt for the smaller low-fat one, you'll cut about 12 grams of fat. then take alli with it to help boost your weight loss. so for every 2 pounds you work to lose, alli can help you lose 1 more. alli. how healthy works. >> osgood: it happened this week, the loss of three people who helped bring some of the most memorable characters of popular culture to life. we learned of the death at age 93 of joanne siegel who in the mid 1930s was artist joe schuster's model for the superman comic strip character lois lane. she went on to to marry'

strip's co-creator jerry siegel and devoted much of her life to the two men's fight for a larger share of the superman royalties. many an actress has played lois lane on tv and in the movies over the years, but it was joanne siegel who showed them the way. >> there's a hold-up in the bronx. >> osgood: john strauss died monday at the age of 90 in los angeles. strauss composed the tune for the theme song of the 1960s tv show "car 54, where are you?" ♪ car 54, where are you? >> osgood: starring joey ross and fred gwynn as two bumbling new york city policemen. to this day some folks who wouldn't know jackson heights from another place still know the tune to car 54. and we learned of the death wednesday of character actor len lesser. after 40 some years of bit parts on tv and in the movies he received wide recognition

at last in the 1990s on seinfeld. >> uncle leo. >> hello. jerry, hello. >> reporter: playing jerry's insufferable uncle leo. >> i saw you yesterday. >> why didn't you say hello. >> because you were too busy stealing a book. >> you still say hello. >> osgood: enough to make anyone say uncle. len lesser was 88. we want to take a moment to mark a transition right here at cbs news. sean mcmahonus who for the past five years has been doing two full-time jobs as president of both cbs news and cbs sports has been promoted to the new position of chairman of cbs sports. taking over the top job at news is jeff fager long-time executive producer of "60 minutes." he's been promoted to the new position of chairman while

keeping his role at "60 minutes. " david roads the head of u.s. television operations for bloomberg has been named president of cbs news in charge of day-to-day operations. we congratulate our friend and colleague on his well deserved promotion. we offer our thanks to sean mcmanus who has been a good friend to sunday morning these past several years and wish him all the best now that he has just one full-time job. he told us friday that some of the color is already starting to come back to his hair. by the way, under mcmanus's leadership cbs news has won 12 emmys, three duponts and four peabody awards. >> this is jeopardy. >> osgood: ahead elementary my,,

pride in our human intellect seems in jeopardy. and to the tv quiz show of the same name this past week.

we have been looking into this latest encounter between man and machine. we begin with jim axelrod. >> reporter: you can forget lady gaga and her edge. >> this is jeopardy. >> reporter: the biggest splash on tv last week was a game show contestant with spikey hair and a blue face. >> brad and ken. >> reporter: no, not these guys. this guy. >> seems to have a split personality. >> who is hyde. >> reporter: watson, i.b.m.'s super computer which took on two of jeopardy's all-time champs and crushed them in a man versus machine match-up that carried some scary implications. >> i for one welcome our new computer. >> reporter: no matter how much we chuckled about them. in the world of artificial intelligence, watson is a super star. able to understand language with all its nuances and sift

through 200 million pages of content in three seconds to figure out complicated jeopardy clues. >> who is jeanne paul jeanne. >> correct. >> reporter: david farucci of i.b.m.'s research center headed up watson's design team. >> it helps us to appreciate how we solve problems and how incredible the human mind and body is. >> reporter: what are you seeing as future applications of the technology that we're seeing with watson? >> i think that the technology is going to help empower people to make decisions. >> reporter: job one for watson may be health care. i.b.m. is testing watson to see how the computer would deal with patients in some medical jeopardy. this doctor is collaborating with i.b.m. to move watson into the medical suite. chase says the information explosion in modern medicine threatens to overload doctors, making them less effective. >> watson can go find

information that will directly impact on your understanding of the patient's diagnosis or provide a series of different treatment options that are suitable for your particular patient. >> reporter: the technology could bring a specialist's expertise to the primary care level and help prevent diagnostic mistakes says dr. martin cone of i.b.m.'s health care division. >> when i see a patient i'm collecting thoughts in all sorts of ways. the patient's body language, what their face looks like. watson is never going to replace that. >> reporter: i.b.m.'s catherine phrase. >> the benefit of a computer is it's very logical. it's probably its strong point is our weak point but the reverse is also true. the kind of response that a human has to music or to art, to a computer it's... its frequency and amplitudes. it can learn to analyze it but it can't feel. >> reporter: in other words, watson may rival the human

brain but never the human heart. >> watson won jeopardy because it was pre-loaded with so much information and data. in fact if you printed it all out it would equal 200 million pages accessed in the blink of an eye. >> sure, watson may have made history but i wonder, how did it feel? robots long ago mastered the task of repetitive work, but the newest frontier doesn't involve robots exploring distant planets or making more cars or even beating you at math. >> the newest wave of computers and robots is designed to manipulate our emotions, m.i.t.professor and national science foundation researcher sherry turkel says it's surprisingly easy to make a robot that toys with someone's emotions. >> we're biologically programmed to think that a machine that can do very, very

simple things like look us in the eye, remember our name, is a machine that cares about us. >> check out this robotic seal. it responds to petting and cuddling. it listens to what you have to say. and it even answered back. it's in use right now to cheer up people who might feel alone in places like retirement homes. how about a family of friendly, caring robots to keep lonely grandpa happy? coming soon is what most robot- makers are hoping. >> but in her book "alone together" she says that technology that imitates love or affection in the end deprives us of the one thing we really need: human contact. >> these machines fool us into thinking they care whereas in fact they're being put in place of people who care. >> sure. robots might make do for a while. but in the end they'll blow up in your face. so next time you're feeling a

little too close to a robot, just let 'em down easy. say, it's not you. it's me. that usually works. >> this is the fitting. >> osgood: just ahead, the next big thing. ,,,,,,,,,,,,

>> osgood: these clothes are fit for fashion. created by he willy to harry one of the feature designers at new york's fashion week which ended thursday. he has come a very long way in his career in more ways than one. as tracy smith now shows us. >> reporter: in the white hot glare of the fashion world, some of the names on the labels are famous in their own right. witness diane von furstenberg,

donna caron, he willy to harry. the name is well known but the face behind it not so much. when you first heard the name he willy to harry and you saw it on your label who did you picture? >> i did not picture elie. i figured a woman first of all. >> reporter: really, a woman? >> yeah. >> reporter: of the millions who have he willy to harry hanging in their closet few probably know that elie is a he. >> i was coming down the elevator with somebody that i noticed she bought some of he willy to harry clothes. i said, i see you bought some he willy to harry. she said, "oh, i love her designs." >> reporter: her design. his clothes are sold in more than 600 stores in the u.s., and worn by people with slightly more famous faces like beyonce, elizabeth hurley and angelina jolie. it's all designed in a starkly beautiful studio in manhattan. it's bright in here, el icht e. >> it's bright. we made sure that everybody

would see daylight from everywhere. >> reporter: you can't hide anything in here. >> no, you can't hide anything. >> reporter: the samples are sewn together a few feet from the design tables. beyond pure style, the thing that matters most around here is fit. >> it fits her well too. >> reporter: the initial samples are made for tall, skinny runway models like her. >> it's easy to fit them on the runway models. >> reporter: not so easy to fit it on the real woman. >> on the real woman. >> reporter: so the clothes that will eventually be shipped out to a store near you, like the little pink number here, are fit on members of he willy to harry's office staff, actual people with actual hips. >> that's a little better. >> reporter: his formula seems to be working. sales of merchandise are put at around $100 million a year. and that's even more impressive when you know just how little he willy to harry started out with.

born in jerusalem in 1952, he willy to harry spent much of his childhood in an orphanage after his parents divorced. when he came of age, he served in the israeli air force as a mechanic. and after his discharge he went to new york city, flush with ambition and little else. back in the summer of 1971 with almost no money to his name and nowhere else to go, he willy to harry would sleep in central park. did you sleep well? >> i remember sleeping well. i didn't think... i didn't have a place to sleep and i was homeless. i thought i was camping. i'm camping in new york. >> reporter: that's a good way to look at it. it's an adventure. >> that's how i felt. it's an adventure. >> reporter: he eventually found work changing light bulbs in new york's garment district by day and selling women's clothing at night.

>> that was a way of not just making money but meeting women. that was a very excite job. i loved that job. >> reporter: all about getting the girl? >> all about meeting the girls, right. >> reporter: it was also about learning what women in the disco era wanted to wear. his first big hit in the fashion business was a sleeveless shirt called the tube top. >> we were selling them for $4. i remember women coming in and buying them by the dozen they used to buy them. >> reporter: before long he had his own store and eventually graduated to a collection of women's business clothing. big padded shoulders and all. he willy to harry never had any formal fashion training, but he always seemed to know just what women wanted to wear. they would beat a path to his

door. >> frankly, i had no other choice. i had to succeed. or i would have to be homeless again. >> reporter: after two decades of steady growth, he was a major player by september of 2001 the man who once slept on a bench in central park now had a big office in midtown manhattan in a landmark building that he owned. ♪ in the days after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 when new york was awash with red, white and blue, he willy to harry wanted to make a statement of his own about his adopted country. >> we own a building on fifth avenue. i decided i'm just going to put a flag on it. so we started first a small flag and then it became the whole building became a flag. 150 feet long by 52 wide.

>> reporter: or to put it another way wide enough to wrap the five-story building in. >> it was something that i in me that i had to express. >> reporter: in the decade since he has had his challenges. his ten-year marriage to form he were journalist rori green dissolved last year. how are you holding up? how do you get through that? >> it's tough but everyday it's getting better. you go through whatever you have to go through. >> reporter: the business, however, has flourished. he puts the value of his company at around $500 million. the very benches where he would hunker down each night are just across the steet from the ultrapricey high rise where he now lives. you literally went from rags to riches. >> i don't feel i'm very successful, no. i feel i did well. financially i am doing well. i am comfortable. life is... life has a lot more

in store for me. >> reporter: he may never be the most famous designer in the world. he said he's rather let his clothes do the talking but he willy to harry's life story says it all. do you have advice to people out there who look at your story and say how did he do it? >> i would say everything you do makes... do it with love. >> reporter: it's all about love. >> it's all about love. >> 1:15 take 6. >> osgood: just ahead oscar nominee jesse eisenberg. and later a rose of a different sort.

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do you need some help with the ladies? >> reporter: it's sunday morning on cbs, and here again is charles osgood. >> osgood: the 2002 movie roger dodger launched jesse eisenberg's film career. since then he's won wide recognition and his latest starring role could win him an academy award a week from tonight. here's harry smith with the envelope please. >> the nominee for best performance by an actor in a leading role are jesse eisenberg in the social network. >> would you like to talk about something else. >> reporter: it's no easy task putting a label on jesse eisenberg. the oscar nominee for best actor in the social network. leading man, screen idol. movie star. if none of those seem like a proper fit, then may we suggest reluctant celebrity. >> i acknowledge this movie is regarded better than anything i've ever been in. but i feel like i've acted

better in other things. it doesn't always feel like there's a direct correlation between like what you do and the efforts you put in and the reception that follows. >> reporter: at the ripe old age of 27, jesse eisenberg has more than a dozen feature films under his belt. ranging from independent dramas like "the squid and the whale." >> he just failed because he's not as successful as he used to be. >> reporter: to the coming of age story "adventure land." >> look, i know most people have low standards. i guess i'm different. >> reporter: and the action come coffey hit "zombie land." eisenberg has established himself as the sort of actor who commands the screen without commanding a lot of attention. >> nick? >> uncle roger. how is it going? >> one of the great things about new york is you can be fairly anonymous.

>> i am anonymous. >> reporter: and that's just fine with him. he's happy to have achieved so much even if he's not so happy being skrut nisesed by our cameras. >> it makes you feel like your image is being used in a way you didn't expect it to be or something you said that is taken out of context. there's something very uncomfortable about that. >> reporter: fame. >> i guess that's what it is normally referred to. >> let the hacking begin. >> reporter: but fame has been the inevitable result of his breakout performance as facebook founder and world's youngest billionaire mark zuckerberg. >> mr. zuckerberg, do i have your full attention? >> you have part of my attention. you have the minimum amount. the rest of my attention is back at the offices facebook where my colleagues and i are doing things that no one in this room including and especially your clients are intel yektally or creatively capable of doing. >> reporter: a highly intelligent quirky and self-aware character. >> who are you. >> reporter: not surprisingly those are the exact same terms you might also use to describe

jesse eisenberg. >> somebody you felt lonely. kind of loneliness motivated them to stop producing an emotional connection to other people, almost, you know, kind of, you know, rejecting life. i felt like i knew people like that. i felt in some way is i did that a little bit too. >> reporter: when iceen lerg recently hosted is aate sat night live and met the real mark zuckerberg for the first time. >> so. >> so. >> reporter: it was hard to tell who felt less comfortable. >> really liked you on "60 minutes." . as i was leafing he ran over to say good bye to me and say how much he liked doing the show. it was so sweet and generous. >> i can imagine it must be really uncomfortable to have a movie made about your life, a movie that is showing things that are probably difficult to watch. >> i bet what you hated the most is that they identified me as a co-founder of facebook. >> reporter: growing up in and around new york city,

eisenberg's own life story revolves around performing. his sister haley made a splash in the 1990s with a series of memorable soft drink commercials. >> i wouldn't want to hear one of those crazy voices of yours. >> honey, you ain't heard nothing yet. hit it, fellows. >> reporter: young jesse soon took to the stage hill self. by his early teens he discovered that acting was an outlet he desperately needed. >> i was a very emotional kid. i had, you know, difficulty in school. difficulty relating to other kids. but it's okay to cry in oliver because his parents are gone but not at basketball games like i used to. when i started acting in earnest like i used... when i was 12 years old i was in a safe and controlled environment. it allowed me to emte. i never had sex. >> reporter: in his film role 2002 roger dodger he established a persona that he has revis ited-times since a

precocious young man whose intelligence gets in his way of the pursuit of a beautiful woman. >> you know like charles dickens travel books but he visited prisons and mental asylums. >> reporter: this is a trait of some of the characters you've played. whereas guys who are trying to lose their virginity. right? >> yeah. i suppose so. you know, although in my defense it seems like 90% of movies that come out feature that same plight. >> reporter: two other films he released last year further broadened his range. the off-beat comedy the living wake. >> if i was real i'd go to the bakery to garner some pastrys for my morning meal. >> reporter: and holy rolers. >> excuse me. are you jewish? >> reporter: based on the real life story of an jewish drug dealer. >> nothing bad is going to happen. you're both very smart people.

>> 115, take 2. >> reporter: the social network has presumably boosted eisenberg's box office prospects and if his smart guy image needed any further bolstering, consider the website he's created "one up me" dot-com. it's an on-line word game that gives the public a chance to match witts with eisenberg by trying to top the pun-filled joke she publishes each day. >> always has a crusty residue around her mouth. her sweetness covers a chemical imbalance. acts like a vegetable but doctors know better. >> reporter: people all day long fill in the blank after the line of the day. >> yes instead of working, right. >> reporter: it's no small irony that the only place to participate in this game is to have an account on facebook. we got the feeling jesse eisenberg doesn't really mind that people are paying more

attention to his work. he might though prefer we not pay so much attention to him. >> i think of myself just, you know, as an actor who got a role in something. you know, i could have just as easily gotten a role in a play in a 100-seat theater about, you know, coal miners. and i would also have nothing to say about that. >> reporter: because you're not a coal miner. >> ultimately not. >> reporter: or at least i didn't find it in the research any place. >> we've been successfully hiding that. ♪ [ smack! ] [ smack! smack! smack! ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium rich tums goes to work in seconds. nothing works faster. ♪ tum ta tum tum tums nothing works faster. to stay fit, you might also want to try lifting one of these. a unique sea salt added to over 40 campbell's condensed soups. it helps us reduce sodium, but not flavor.

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>> osgood: we've been hearing cautiously good news. >> now for some bad news. the economic event that really turns life upsidedown in recent years has not been recession but inflation. only a fairly small percentage get unemployed in a downturn. only a much smaller percentage have their homes foreclosed upon. but when serious inflation hits, it hits almost everyone. it started this time with industrial commodities which have now risen spectacularly after their lows in 2008 and 2009. the rise has largely been fed by demands in the far east. this is the proverbial butterfly's wings that started a typhoon. then came agricultural kmodite hes again pulled up by demand from china. now we're getting serious falls in china. u.s. forecasts are also disappointing. there are huge crop problems in australia, south america and russia. corn, wheat, rice and other foods are just going wild. as we all know, gold and

silver have had an amazing rise although a recent pullback. but most important of all the fed is just shoving money out the door as fast as it can creating piles of cash in banks. so far the banks are mostly hording that money which we don't like because it doesn't help the recovery. if the banks ever start lending that money and the recovery begins in a big way, the pieces will be in place for serious inflation. it may happen even without the banks opening their vaults. food prices at the grocery store are astronomical. gasoline has shot up. air fares are up. we used to think we could not have high unemployment and high inflation at the same time. the experience of the late '70s and the early '80s showed that's not the case. it even has a name. stagflation. this causes political and economic stress. rising prices were major causes of the recent unrest in egypt. now it sure looks as if it's going to get worse. it could be serious here too. i'm not predicting it in a big way here. i'm just saying that the tea

leaves are ominous. if it comes it won't be pretty. once it starts inflation is incredibly painful to stop without stopping the recovery too. i told you it was bad news. >> osgood: flowers in the fast lane just ahead. host: what, do you live under a rock? man: no way! man: hey rick check this out! anncr: geico. 15 minutes could save 15% or more on car insurance. hey, babe. oh, hi, honey! so i went to the doctor today, then picked up a few extra things for the baby. oh, boy... i used our slate card with blueprint. we can design our own plan to avoid interest

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roses like these graced many a household vase this past week. while roses of a different sort and scale are gracing one of america's most famous avenues. serena altschul takes us on a garden walk. >> reporter: on a frigid night this january, sculptor will ryeman and his crew had a daunting task ahead of them. >> it's going to be a long night. >> reporter: working non-stop they had to install 38 steel and fiberglass roses, some measuring up to 25 feet high

along the median strip of new york's park avenue. by morning, the final landscaping was done. ryeman hadn't slept for 30 straight hours. >> it was absolutely freezing. but we were so busy that we didn't really think about it. i never have been through anything like that before. >> reporter: the reaction of neighbors was immediate. >> a friend of mine visiting us. he said how is it? as spring arrives the flowers are out, the lady bugs, the beatles. what have you been smoking? i said wait until you see for yourself. >> i was hoping for snow not this much snow. >> reporter: right. you got it. >> but it worked out. >> reporter: the installation came out even better than ryeman expected. >> i picked the colors with the the hope that it would snow because i thought these colors would really pop with the wintry back drop. >> reporter: you might call ryeman's work a dog's eye view of the world. and there is something edgy about the scale of the flowers

with their large thorns and even larger bugs. >> the perspective that inspired me was the visual from underneath the roses looking up. also, you know, i wanted the scale to be high because i wanted people in the buildings to have a dialogue about it as well. >> i love the irony of having a beautiful rose in the middle of winter. what an idea. >> reporter: for real estate developer jerry spire, who also happens to be chairman of the board of new york's museum of modern art, the will ryeman works he owns are both playful.... >> look at this guy. he's holding on for dear life. >> reporter:... and mysterious. >> it's almost like somebody looking to god, right? it shows you the range of the man's work. i always look for artists that don't do the same thing over and over again. >> i never wanted to be an artist. >> reporter: in fact, ryeman started out as a playwright. but found himself drawn to the

visual arts. >> everybody who was around me was an artist. my family. their friends. >> reporter: finally he gave in to the urge to create objects. >> my background is from the theater. the objects, i want the object out here to look like they're moving or dancing or performing. >> reporter: consider this particular performance of roses. will ryeman's personal bouquet to his hometown. >> i grew up here. i was raised here. i've seen the city go through a lot of change but at the same time it's always stayed the same. >> reporter: it has? >> i think it is bit of an affectionate gift to the area. >> osgood: correspondent serena altschul. now to bob schieffer in washington for a look at what's ahead on face the nation. good morning, bob. >> schieffer: good morning, charles. we'll ask the question is the government shutdown more likely now? and indications are it may well be. >> schieffer:.

>> osgood: thank you, bob. we will be watching. next week here on sunday morning.... >> there's a soldier who loves you and wants to feel your arms about him. >> osgood: it's the oscar edition. >> you have to realize that you love me. >> osgood: they just don't make 'em like they used to, right? >> if it had to happen to one of us us, why did it have to be you? as possible to future generations. at northern trust, we know what works and what doesn't. as one of the nation's largest wealth managers, we can help you manage the complexities of transferring wealth. seeking to minimize taxes while helping maximize what's passed along. because you just never know how big those future generations might be. ♪ expertise matters. find it at northern trust.

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it pays to switch, it pays to discover. >> sunday morning's moment of nature is sponsored by... >> osgood: we leave you this sunday morning in alberta, canada, along the rocky mountains where big horn sheep forage for food in the winter snow.

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